What's in a river's name?

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River-by-Name: Little Bull Falls on the Popple River. PHOTO BY MIKE SVOB

Throughout my adult life, my primary passions have been language and literature, on the one hand, and paddling and running on the other. I made my living by teaching the former, and refreshed my mind and body through the latter. Fortunately, the two have often become one, thanks to the innumerable times when fascinating words and expressions presented themselves during paddling or running trips. Anyone who traverses miles and miles of rivers or jogging trails is bound to encounter and be struck by such language.

Lately I've recalled some of the noteworthy nomenclature I've run into over the years. Here - in hopes that you, too, enjoy the romance, euphony and occasional humor of the names of paddling locations - is a selection of my favorites.

First to come to mind are the designations that past generations of paddlers have assigned to rapids and drops. Often they're nondescript, such as those named after people, like Suzie's Rapids on the Oconto River. But many are titled in a manner that describes their nature. Little Falls on the Jump River, for example, is indeed little - an easy Class II - but Big Falls downstream is a tough Class III that earns its name. Big Falls on the Eau Claire in Eau Claire County is also a difficult Class III drop, but, just to keep paddlers guessing, Little Falls on the South Fork of the Flambeau is a misnomer: it is also a Class III.

In my thousands of miles of paddling over the years, the most inaccurate name I've ever encountered was on the beautiful Big Piney Creek in Arkansas where the members of my group were nervously anticipating the ominous sounding rapids called the Cascades of Extinction only to discover that it was just a set of barely Class II ledges. Elsewhere in Arkansas, however, Washing Machine Rapid on the Cossatot River truly earned its name: unskilled paddlers are definitely run through a dangerous wringer.

Other rapids and drops with picturesque and accurate names include Terminal Surfer on the Menominee on the Wisconsin-Michigan border, where a hole near the takeout can trap unwary boaters and shred rafts; Rocky Carry Rapids on the South Fork of the Flambeau, a long roller-coaster boulder-garden; Scratch Rapids on the Upper Wisconsin, where low-water rocks will mercilessly scrape the bottom of your boat; and, of course, the fantastic five-mile stretch of the Peshtigo known as Roaring Rapids.

On the Wolf, who can forget the ever-popular Gilmore's Mistake, a rapid supposedly named after a 19th century lumber company scout who reported to his superiors that the river upstream wasn't worth logging; and Big Smokey Falls, the pi?ce-de-resistance of the challenging Menominee Reservation section?

For memorable names, the Wolf is in a class of its own. A partial list, from Post Lake downstream, includes such places as Turtle High Banks, Military Park, Big Slough Gundy and Little Slough Gundy, Oxbow Rapids, Horse Race Rapids, Twenty Day Rapids, Burnt Shanty Rapids, Shotgun Eddy Rapids, Pissmire Falls, Otter Slide, Duck's Nest Rapids and Tea Kettle Rapids.

Then there are the names of a questionable nature. A glaring example is the big island in the Wisconsin River several miles downstream from the Hat Rapids Dam. For generations this was known as Nigger Island before the Department of Natural Resources sensibly renamed it after Father Renè Menard, the famous missionary who mysteriously disappeared during an exploratory trip along the river in 1661.

Another dicey example is to be found on the Tomahawk River between Willow Flowage and Lake Nokomis. At one point, just upstream from Prairie Rapids Road, the river takes a circuitous course that, when viewed on a map, looks downright phallic. Thus, this part of the river is known locally as Pecker Point. The best whitewater on this stretch of the river presents another example of political incorrectness: Halfbreed Rapids. The same can be said of a number of tributaries across the state that bear the name Squaw Creek.

Whenever I paddle a new river, I always get excited when the map indicates a dells. The word dells generally indicates the presence of rocky cliffs, swift water and rapids, and that's exactly what you get in the dells of the Wisconsin, Wolf, Peshtigo, Little Wolf, Big Rib, Jump, Eau Claire - in Marathon County, Prairie and St. Croix rivers in Wisconsin, and to a lesser extent on the Fox River and Carroll Creek in Illinois.

Another magical word calculated to get the adrenaline flowing is gorge, especially as exemplified by heart-thumping Piers Gorge on the Menominee and the Pine River Gorge downstream from LaSalle Falls. Less dramatic but still impressive are the Upper Narrows Gorge on the Baraboo near Rock Springs, Wisconsin, and the Kishwaukee River Gorge near Rockford, Illinois.

Even the bridges and shuttle roads frequently bear colorful names, such as the Red, White and Blue Bridge over the Vermilion, and Devil's Backbone Road and Happy Hollow Road near the Rock River, all in Illinois. When paddling the Sugar River or bicycling the nearby Sugar River Trail in southern Wisconsin, my friends and I have often stayed overnight at the charmingly titled Sweet Minihaha Campground on the riverbank, a few miles upstream from the Crazy Horse Campground.

Various riverside features also have striking names, such as Witches Gulch and Bogus Bluff along the Wisconsin River; Turkey Bayou and Rattlesnake Ferry on the Big Muddy River; and Castle Rock on the Baraboo, Wisconsin and Rock rivers).

In attempting to account for the names of rivers and streams, I make no claims to being an exhaustive researcher, but the following explanation should be fairly comprehensive. There appear to be seven primary sources for such names.

1) From the names of people, such as early settlers or loggers. The Baraboo River's name, for example, is derived from the Baribeau brothers who built a mill on the river.

2) From trees that are common along the stream - see Pine and Popple rivers.

3) From the color of the water, e.g., the Black; the Eau Claire, meaning clear water; and the Big Muddy in southern Illinois.

4) From animals: the Wolf in Wisconsin and the Mackinaw, Ojibwa for "turtle," in Illinois.

5) From Native American words and expressions: the Iroquois and Kaskaskia rivers; Nippersink Creek, Potawatomi for "little water," in Illinois; and the Manitowish, Ojibwa for "spirit," in Wisconsin.

6) From historical events: the Bois Brule River, French for "burnt forest" and the Flambeau which is French for the torches used by Native American fishermen at night.

7) For specific river and stream characteristics: the Embarras meaning "obstruction," and Cache meaning "hidden," in Illinois; and Gravelly Brook, which a Peshtigo tributary, and Noisy Creek, a Wisconsin River feeder, in Wisconsin.

Perhaps an eighth category is needed to explain enigmatic names like the Tomorrow River which, incidentally, is one of the translations of Waupaca, the Tomorrow's sister river.